


Day Zero

by phinnia



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV), Torchwood
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:06:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21776488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phinnia/pseuds/phinnia
Summary: When Five brings the family back in time, he also moves them in space, because the Cardiff rift brings them to Wales.So that's different.Torchwood, but with Tosh and Owen still alive.  Spoilers for TUA.
Comments: 12
Kudos: 75





	1. Chapter 1

Jack Harkness's wrist strap beeped. 

"Well, just you and me, Janet, I guess I'd better go and see what the hell that is." Jack said to himself, stretching, yawning, and taking the lift outside to the sidewalk. He took his coat and the Webley as well, because he wasn't an idiot, either.

There was a bright blue light, like the TARDIS charging - but not that noise, no, no - and ... a bunch of children fell on the ground in front of him. They were all dressed in school uniforms.

They didn't move for a moment. There was moaning.

"Fuck, my _head_." One of them says. "That was a bastard, Five."

"I thought it was better than dying in a pit of asteroidal dust and exploded theater." Another one says.

"Where are we?" A girl asks.

"Cardiff." Jack says. "Wales."

The kids scrambled to their feet, except for one, who seemed to be unconscious.

"Hey, hey, hold it." Jack says. "I'm totally harmless. Okay, I'm mostly harmless. I have great cheekbones and a devastating grin, fantastic eyes and I work out. But I just have the one gun, okay?"

"You smell great." One of the kids says. "Is that _aftershave_?"

"Fifty-first century hormones."

"Oooh." 

"Klaus!" Two of the others say.

"What? He's adorable!"

Jack chuckles. "Part of the package."

"Can we go inside or something?" A tall blonde boy says, picking up the unconscious girl. "We should get Vanya looked at." 

"Yeah." Jack nods. "I'll call Owen and Gwen."

Owen stomped in here ten minutes later with his usual rage. "What the fuck are all the brats doing in here? Torchwood school outing?"

"Excuse me?" Diego threw a knife at him. It landed in the wall next to him.

"Okay, first, he's just ... like that all the time, and second, how did it go around the corner? Is it weighted? Or how did it happen? Owen, shut your mouth and take a look at Vanya on the table."

Luther sighed. "We should probably explain."

"He's dealt with time travel before. Not through the commission though." Five says. "I think it's that ... thing on his wrist. I'd love to take a look at it."

"Vortex manipulator." Jack says. 

"Is there any _coffee_?" Five says. "I would _snap someone's neck_ for a coffee!"

"I'll call Ianto, too." Jack grins. 

Gwen came in and was very startled to see ... all the children hanging around. One of them was throwing knives at a paper target, one of them was talking to ... nothing ... there was a girl reading a book in the corner, one of them was helping Owen with another girl passed out on the table, one was looking at Jack's wrist strap, and one was leaning against the kid that was talking to nothing's back.

"Hi!" Gwen says.

"Hello!" Ianto says from the back. "Coffee?"

"Coffee!" The one with Jack's wrist strap got up and actually disappeared in a blue flash.

He _literally_ reappeared across the room in another blue flash and drained the coffee. "Oh my God this is so amazing, he makes the most amazing coffee."

Then he just reappeared back with Jack's wrist strap. "I've almost got this thing working again."

"What is going on?" Gwen says.

"That's great, Five! Hi." Jack smiles. "They fell out of the rift. Sit down. I'll introduce you. They'll be Torchwood members."

"What??"

"Oh yeah, Diego almost killed Owen, it was great. Sorry you missed it. You might remember there was a weird event in ... oh, wow, I'm terrible with years ... 1989? October 1, 1989! Not the best year for me, 1989, good music though."

"Alex says hi!" The kid in the corner says.

"Hi Alex!" Jack waves at the empty space. "Anyway. There was this weird mass pregnancy event. Nobody was pregnant at the beginning of the day, but they were just ... pregnant. And then they gave birth."

"That is _so fucked._ " Owen says.

"Isn't it? But yeah. So their dad goes around the world looking for these miracle babies, finds seven of them and raises them. And they all have superpowers. Longer story, probably a _lot_ longer, but you get what I mean? Anyway, there was a apocalypse and they stopped it but then they had to get away so they travelled back in time. Fell out of the rift. Five - that's Five there, fixing my wrist strap - he says he thinks the Rift drew them all off course because of it's massive space-time energy output."

"Well, that's ... interesting." Gwen says. "What can they all ... er, do?"

"Well, Luther has super-strength, Diego can make thrown objects curve around corners ... uh ... Alison can sort of 'rumor' people into believing things? It's kind of weird. Klaus can see ghosts. Five can jump through space, and apparently also time but that's a crapshoot, Ben's got some kind of weird Eldrich monsters in his guts, and Vanya's got some kind of sonic thing they're still trying to figure out." Jack leaned over to whisper in Gwen's ear. "Also I think therapy _really_ needs to happen because _oh my God these kids have issues._ Daddy sounds like a _control freak._ "

Ianto appeared at Jack's shoulder. "Licenced therapists that are used to dealing with aliens, sir."

"Can we get some new clothes?" Alison says.

"Please?" Klaus says, begging. "I _hate_ pants, and I would kill for some decent _eyeliner_!"

"David Bowie always said girls never knew how to put on eyeliner." Jack grins. 

"You knew David Bowie?" 

"Honey, I _fucked_ Bowie, and he was amazing."

"Jack!" Gwen hits him on the shoulder.

"What?" Jack says. "I did."

So Ianto, Gwen, Jack, Klaus, Alison, and Ben all get in one of Torchwood's SUVs. 

"So what else falls out of the rift?" Ben asks.

"Oh, you know, the usual stuff." Jack says. "Displaced time nonsense. The odd alien."

"Oh my God, aliens!" Klaus starts bouncing up and down. "That is so _fucking cool_!"

"So you guys deal with aliens?" Alison says. "I mean, you have a secret base, I assume you deal with aliens, right?"

"She got it in one." Gwen laughs.

"This is way better than dad's bank robberies and all that bullshit." Ben grins. 

"We have a guard dinosaur." Ianto says. "She likes chocolate."

"You do not!" Klaus and Ben shout at the same time.

"We do!" 

"It's a damn shame you don't have any _special_ chocolate left." Ben elbows Klaus in the ribs.

"Nah, Hazel and Cha-Cha stole it and ate it all."

"Damn temporal assasins, ruining everything."

Jack starts laughing. "No getting my dinosaur stoned!"

They all go to a large chain store.

"It's all going on the Torchwood card, so just throw whatever you want in the cart." Jack says. "I mean, go wild. Get stuff for the other kids too if you know what they want."

"Good idea." Ianto nods.

Klaus is shrieking and running in between sections, throwing mostly girl clothes in the cart.

"Ah, to be young and queer with someone else's unlimited card." Ianto says.

Ben is carefully picking out hoodies and jeans. Alison is putting things for herself in the cart, and talking to Gwen about Vanya. Then Ben comes up to Jack and Ianto. "Uh, do you have one of those phone things?"

"Of course! Ianto, we should -"

"Get them all set up with mobiles, yes sir, it'll be done by the end of the day."

"I was wondering if I could borrow it to call Five and Diego and ask what they want?"

"Sure! I'll call Owen." He calls Owen right then. This should be _hysterical_.

"Owen!"

"Christ." Owen sighs. "These kids are driving me up a fucking wall. The little snarky one is always popping in and out and the other one with the knives is doing _target practice_ on the bloody ceiling now."

"Well, put the little snarky one on." He hands his phone to Ben.

"Hey, Five-O... lots of clothes here. What do you want to wear, don't say a school uniform, okay?"

"Just something ordinary." he can hear Five saying through the reciever. "Boring. You know. Actual long pants, a shirt with buttons."

"If you don't tell me I'll make Klaus pick you out a dress."

"Just ... ordinary pants and an ordinary shirt! Ordinary shoes, socks! Ordinary underwear!"

"Okay, okay! Diego wants black, right?"

"Obviously, you _troglodyte_." He hangs up.

Ben passes back his phone. "Sorry, my brother's an ass."

"Well, eventually I think he and Owen will get along." Jack chuckles. "Or they might murder each other. Which will be fascinating."

"Oh, Five's done plenty of killing." Ben says.

"Hmmm." Ianto muses. "Perhaps we should give _him_ a shot at Owen."

In the end they spend nearly a thousand pounds on the Torchwood credit card (not counting mobiles) and they are loaded down with bags. Ianto buys seven mobiles and starts setting them up.

Jack has no idea where they're going to sleep right now, so he buys them a bunch of sleeping bags. 

"Humans are the only race in the universe that goes camping." he says. "Celebrate your own uniqueness."

"Dad never let us go camping." Ben says.

"You never went camping?" Gwen asks, blinking.

"Nope." Alison shrugs. 

"There's a lot we never did." Klaus sighs. "Mostly because dad was an epic asshole that didn't know anything about children. I mean, playtime was between twelve and twelve-thirty on Saturdays."

"Playtime was between _twelve_ and _twelve-thirty_ on Saturdays." Ianto turns to look at his face.

"If you didn't do something to get it taken away." Klaus replies like it's not a big deal. "I did that a lot. The skirts, the drugs."

"If he wasn't already dead I'd find him and kill him myself." Jack mutters and shifts gears.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More confessions. Who do you call when you need therapy for a bunch of weird, suddenly appearing teenagers out of the Rift? Hmm. I wonder. Is it Martha Jones?

They get back to the Hub to find that Vanya was awake and Five had taken over the whiteboard in the conference room and was scribbling equations on it.

"Do you want something more portable?" Ianto asks him. "Paper? A laptop? You haven't met Tosh yet, have you? I think she'll be in soon. You'll like Tosh."

"Chalkboard would be nice, I hate these markers. A notebook, too."

"Chalkboard, certainly." Ianto scribbles himself a note.

Tosh herself just came into the Hub. "Hello?"

"Tosh!" Ianto shouts. "Come into the conference room!"

Toshiko came into the conference room. "Ianto?"

"Tosh, this is Five. Five, this is Toshiko Sato."

"Oh! Is that Maxwell's time-dependent surface equations you're working on?"

He stopped and raised his eyebrow. "Yes. It is. You're ... a lot smarter than what I'm used to dealing with."

Tosh shrugs. "It's just maths." 

"To be fair, most of my family _are_ painfully stupid." 

"Are they really that bad?"

"Yes." He looks at Ianto. "Coffee?"

"Absolutely."

"Where am I?" Vanya tried to rub her eyes. She felt so much ... younger. Smaller. 

"Don't you bloody move, you had so many bits of concrete and whatever the hell in you I'll have to fix you up again and I fucking hate that."

 _That_ did not sound like Pogo. That was a cranky British person. Oh, right, the concert. Shit. The apocalypse! Did they stop the -

"Owen! Stop shouting!" A woman's voice. She blinks. The woman has dark hair, freckles, a gentle smile. "Hello. He has the bedside manner of a teapot. You must be Vanya. My name is Gwen Cooper. Your siblings are around ... I believe Five is in the conference room with Toshiko at the moment, Allison and Luther are about, though. Diego's down in the shooting range. Is there any one of them you'd like to see? Would you like a cup of tea?"

"Um ... I don't know. Ben. I'd like to see Ben."

"Okay, of course. Do you want that tea? Ianto can get you something."

"Tea would be great, actually. Two sugars, a little milk?"

"Of course. I'll see if I can find him." She walks off.

"Vanya! You're awake!" Ben runs over. I guess she can't really fault Ben not for doing anything to let her out of the basement. He was a ghost then. 

"No bloody hugging!" Owen says crossly.

"Wow, the ghosts in here are fuckin' _weird as shit_." Klaus says, leaning over the medical bay and waving, a big grin on his face. He had written 'HELLO' and 'GOODBYE' on his palms with Sharpie. "Like, fuckin' _alien_ ghosts! Oh, Owen, Diane says she loves you!" Of course they were sitting together. They had always been close.

Owen drops his clipboard. "How did you -"

"She's standing right there beside you! Oh, she says Katie was great too. She's standing next to Diane. It's cute when they kiss. Actually it's pretty hot when they kiss."

"Klaus." Ben says, laughing.

"What? I'm going through puberty _again_ and it sucked balls the first time. Oh well! At least _pater_ is gone gone gone! No more _training_ , wooo!" He walks semi-gracefully down the stairs. "Alison got you some new clothes! And I found some _awesome_ black sparkly eyeliner, look look! Would look good on you!" He looks at Owen. "Naaah, not really your color, you'd be more of an earthtones guy."

Owen splutters. 

"And Ianto got something so we can get Fivey out of those damn _shorts_ \- oooh, there's a picture. I'm going!" 

Ben throws a box of gauze at him. 

"Is he _always_ that bizarre?" Owen asks, exasperated.

"Yes." Ben and Vanya chorus.

"He's worse than Jack." Owen mutters, picking up his clipboard.

"I heard that!" Klaus shouts. "That's totally a compliment!"

"So ... where am I?" Vanya asks.

"Oh, there's so much to explain." Ben settles in and starts explaining.

Klaus finds his way up to the conference room and slides across the table to find Five in deep conversation with a woman.

"Great job, Fivey, you're working your way up from plastic!" He holds up his hand that says 'HELLO'. "I'm Klaus." 

"Toshiko." She says, shaking his hand.

"She's a hell of a lot smarter than anyone in our family, I'll say that." Five says.

"Oh, come _on_ , Fiverino. You don't know anything about me! You were gone for forty-five or was it seventeen years! I learned _tons_ in that time! Annnnd you're missing an equals sign up there." He points. 

"You have no idea -"

"No, he's right, you are!" Toshiko says, tapping the board. "Up in the second set of brackets."

Five turns around.

"Well, _duh_ , Fivey, university math professors die just like everybody else. Anyway! I gotta jet! Have a ton of people to bug! Oh, Vanya's up and around, too! Well, talking. I gotta ask Jack about stuff, like who the fuck _Suzie_ is and why she hates him so much." He slides down the hall in fuzzy pink socks.

"Was he wearing a skirt?" Toshiko asks. 

"Yes." Five sighs. "He was indeed wearing a skirt. He's just ... like that."

"Oh." She smiles. "So he's like Jack, then." 

Vanya accepted the blanket and the tea that Ianto gave her. "Thank you so much. Ianto, right? What language is that?"

"Welsh."

"Welsh." She smiles again. "I don't think any of us know Welsh. Well, Klaus might have dealt with a couple of Welsh ghosts, I don't know."

"Thick on the ground in Cardiff."

"Not a lot really ... fazes you, does it?" She tips her head to the side.

"Well, it's _Cardiff_." He shrugs. "Plus, you know, aliens."

"Huh."

"Tea Boy, get out." Owen says.

"No." Vanya says. "I'm talking to him, he's nice."

Owen rolls his eyes and leaves himself.

"He's always a bastard like that." Ianto says confidentally.

"Gwen says he has the bedside manner of a teapot."

"Yes, which is why we let him work on mostly dead aliens."

She laughs. "You seem ... ordinary, but comfortable. I was ordinary for a long time."

"Your brothers and sisters said -"

"Oh, my father kept me on drugs for most of my life." She says. "To prevent my powers from manifesting."

"Your father was a complete arse." Ianto replies. "You do realize that."

She nods. "Uh huh. Our butler was a chimpanzee and our mother was an android."

Ianto chuckles. "Your family reunions must have been terribly awkward."

"We didn't really have them. We just saw each other at weddings and funerals." She looks a bit irritated, and Owen's instruments start to shake. "And then my sister rumored me to believe I was just ... you know, ordinary, normal."

"Uh." Ianto blinks. "How old were you?"

"Four. Dad made her, of course."

"Can you ... excuse me for a moment?" He runs off towards Jack's office. 

Ianto runs inside. "We have to get these kids someone to see."

"What, I'm not attractive enough?" Jack jokes from behind his desk.

"Vanya just told me that her father made Allison use her powers to believe that she was just ... ordinary."

 _"What?"_ He almost breaks the whiskey glass in his hand. 

"Yes. When they were four, that happened."

Jack's mouth is moving and absolutely no sound is coming out. He just drains the whiskey glass. "Right. I'll call someone, okay? I don't know if she knows much psychology, but probably more than Owen."

"Thank goodness for _that_ , Owen would make an absolutely _shit_ therapist." Ianto mutters on his way out.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tosh and Ben and Klaus go to get waffles. Five discovers the TARDIS coral in Jack's office and makes a deal with Martha.

Martha's mobile rang, and she dives across her apartment to answer it. "Hello?"

"Martha! It's Jack. Tell me you aren't busy. I _really_ need your help."

"What, end of the world?" She jokes. "Something fall out of the Rift?"

"Sort of, yeah. Seven messed-up teenagers with extraordinary powers."

"Excuse me?"

"I said -" She can hear him pouring a drink.

"I heard you, I just ... was the Doctor back?"

"No, no. It was ... look, can you come? These kids ... well, they're worse off than _he_ was, and that was _fucking shit_ , Martha, and I don't want to leave them to the half a psychology class that Owen didn't manage to cut." He takes a drink. "Look. I'll come and get you, or ... I'll come and get you, okay? I'll be right there."

"Vortex manipulator working?"

"Yeah. Be there, ten minutes."

Martha packed a bag and her medkit in those ten minutes. The Hub would probably have everything, but she liked having her own clothes, toothbrush, toiletries.

Jack appears in a flash of blue light and wraps her up in a hug. "Nightingale."

"Jack. What's up with these kids?"

"Okay, short version. You remember that weird pregnancy thing, October 1, 1989? 43 people were pregnant, weren't pregnant at the start of that day, just got pregnant, gave birth?"

"Wow, that's really ... messed up."

"Yeah. So some ... giant assclown adopts seven of these kids. Doesn't give them names, just _numbers_. One through Seven. And they have weird powers. And _I'm_ saying that and you know I can't die. Luther has super strength, Diego can curve thrown objects, Allison can ... well, she can sort of 'rumor' people into believing things are true, Klaus can see dead people, Five -"

"The kid's name is _Five_?"

"Yeah. Five can spatial jump and time jump but time jumping is a bit of a crapshoot, Ben can make some weird monstrosity burst out of his guts, and Vanya can do some weird thing with sound. But anyway, long story hopefully not longer, he abused the crap out of them. Verbally, emotionally, maybe physically. Ianto just found out that their father made Alison use her powers on Vanya to believe she was just ordinary. They were four." Jack's voice is slightly shaking. "They were _babies_ , Martha."

"Right." Martha takes a deep breath and nods. "This needs much better than Owen's half a psychology class. Let me get my things."

When Jack gets back to the Hub, he sees Diego and Luther wrestling on the floor. Allison has her head buried in her hands, Vanya's just chatting with Ianto in the medical area like it's a totally ordinary day, Five is making an _odds table_ , Owen is giving him some cash, Gwen is shouting at both of them, and Klaus, Ben and Toshiko are ... somewhere else.

"Hold it, hold it, _hold it_." Jack shouts.

Martha puts two fingers in her mouth and whistles shrilly. Everybody falls quiet. 

Jack looks at her in surprise.

"Big family." She says with a smile. "Your Hub."

"Yes, it is." Jack grins at her. "Okay! This is Doctor Martha Jones! You'll want to pay her some respect, because if you don't, she'll kick your asses, or I will! She survived the end of the world, so mad respect for that, okay?"

"You're a time traveller as well." Five says, looking at her strangely.

"I am." Martha nods. 

"Different energy, though. Not the Commission. More like ..."

"Well, the Doctor called it artron energy."

"The Doctor?" 

"Can we use your office, Jack?" Martha asks.

"Of course." 

"All right, I'll talk to you first." Martha says. "Come along, upstairs."

He just spatially jumps into Jack's office.

Martha blinks.

"Don't worry." Ianto says from the medical bay. "He does that a lot. It's fine. Just shout if he wants another coffee."

_Ooookay then. Just shout if he wants another coffee._

Ben and Klaus and Tosh had gone out for a walk around the Plass because Ben wanted to see Cardiff after being dead for so long and they convinced Tosh to come with them. 

"So you were almost dead." Klaus says.

"Yeah, almost." Toshiko says. "Jack managed to get back in time to save me and Owen."

"You should really do something with your makeup, honey. I can help, if you want." Klaus urges her. "And your hair!" 

"Oh, I don't know ..."

"Sweetie, you need a little confidence!" He starts walking backwards. 

"You do." Ben adds. "You really do."

"And better makeup! I mean, listen to Ben, he was my conscience for years! He can be yours too! Is there somewhere we can get waffles? You like waffles?"

"I do like them." Toshiko smiles at Klaus's infectious enthusiasm. 

"Ben _loves_ waffles. We need to do _waffles_. I mean, he hasn't eaten real food since ... I don't even remember!"

"I'll get one of the SUVs." she says, nodding. "We'll find somewhere that does waffles."

"So." Five looks around Jack's office. "You survived the end of the world. So did I. Twice, actually."

"Oh, that's interesting." Martha watches him as he fidgets. He seems to be a very tightly wound ball of energy. "Do you want to tell me about it?"

"Not especially, but you're probably going to make it a requirement."

"Yes. So how about this. You tell me some things about you, and I'll tell you some things I can remember about the Doctor and time. You seem to be interested in those things. Information exchange, fair is fair."

He thinks for a moment and nods once, a minimal movement. "All right. You first. I really need to know what _this_ is." He taps the TARDIS coral on Jack's desk. "It's seriously leaking off time energy and I think it's ... I don't know what it is, but if I nudge at it mentally, I can feel a consciousness starting to grow."

"Oh! _That_ is TARDIS coral. It will eventually grow into a timeship. In a few thousand years." Martha smiles. 

"Time ... ship?"

"Oh no." Martha takes a piece of paper and a pen out of Jack's desk. "First, you tell me how you got here."


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last doctor Jack has actually 'seen' was Ten. So current events do not apply here. Five is a good brother in the background. Ben and Klaus help Tosh with her look. There are waffles. Vanya bonds with Ianto over being ordinary.

"I don't see why she didn't take me first." Luther says sullenly. "I'm the leader."

"No, you _were_ the leader." Diego replies, fiddling with a knife. "Jack is now the leader. Because like Martha said, this is his Hub. Plus Five was asking questions and you know how hard it is to get that little bastard to talk, she had his interest, so she decided to take him up on it."

"Hmmmph. Where did Ben and Klaus go?" 

"No idea."

"Tosh took them out for waffles." Ianto says from where he's sitting with Vanya in the medical bay.

They look up.

"Well, you haven't exchanged phone numbers yet. They went out walking. And well, Klaus was talking about waffles, and so she took them out for waffles, and she texted me so I'd know where they were. We should set up a group chat or something."

"I think that would be a bad idea." Vanya glares across the room at her brothers.

"Vanya ..." Luther gets up.

"Luther, give her some space, okay?" Allison says from across the room. "She needs some space. And some time. Let her work things out."

"All right." He sits back down with a sigh.

"So you had sex with an _alien_ posessing a dead woman's body?" Klaus asks as he stuffs his mouth full of waffles. "Was it good?"

"Er, yes."

"Wow! That's _incredible_!"

"He's frisky." Ben says with a twisted grin. "This one is so hard to pin down you need rope and probably electrical cords. And be careful, because he _loves_ that."

"Shut _uuuup_ , Bennifer!"

"Well, Jack and Ianto are together, you know." Tosh smiles, totally ignoring that bit of information. "Dating, seriously. Well, seriously dating, if you know what I mean."

"Really? Well ... I can see it. He knows how to dress."

"Military fetishism." Ben says with a grin. "That coat is amazing."

"Ianto can fill out a suit too, hell yeah."

"His dad was a master tailor, he says." Tosh confesses. "He used to work in his father's tailor shop." She puts the waffles on the Torchwood card. "Okay, do you need anything else?"

"No, _you_ do though. That's a drugstore over there, right? Come on, Benticles! Makeover time!"

"He gets very serious about makeover time." Ben says, grabbing Tosh by the shoulder. "Come on, you don't want to miss out."

Jack goes downstairs to change into one of the sweaters that Ianto insisted on buying him and finds Five sitting on his bed.

"Hello." he says.

"Nice cell you've got going.' Five says. "Very six-by-nine accomodations here. I mean, better than I had during the end of the world, but that was the end of the world."

"Right." He looks at the kid who is just sitting cross-legged on his unmade bunk. "Are you here for a reason?"

"Yes. I was curious about that coral on your desk. Doctor Jones said it was timeship coral."

"Yes." Jack nods carefully. "TARDIS coral. That's an acronym. Time and Relative Dimensions In Space. It's a multidimensional timeship. Or it will be when it's fully grown."

"Explain."

"Oh." Jack sits down on the bed next to him and runs his hands through his hair. "I don't exactly entirely know how it works and the one person I know who _does_ know a lot more about it is over a thousand-odd years old and I don't have his mobile number or even if he actually has a mobile number. I should ask Martha, he may actually have a mobile number, she might have it."

"Over a thousand years old?"

"Alien. Two hearts. _Very_ sexy, cheeky as hell, last time I saw him. Changes his face a good bit though."

"How does he - "

"He just ... when he gets really injured he sort of regenerates into another body."

"That's strange." 

"You get a lot of strange around here. This is Cardiff. Do you want to meet our pet dinosaur?"

Five looked at him, surprisingly seriously. "Sure. Why not."

While they're on their way upstairs, Five looks up at Jack. "You might want to talk to my brother." he says softly.

"Which one?"

"Klaus. Due to a ... time travel issue, he fought in the Au Shau valley in 1968. You're a soldier, right? Or you were. That's a military coat."

Jack nods. "I was."

"He lost someone there. Someone important to him. I don't know much else. He holds important cards like that close, even though he's a talker."

Jack chuckles. He was definitely a talker. They'd gotten the whole story about some time he'd done an entire rainbow of assorted pills off of someone's chest just because the guy dared him to do it. It reminded Jack of himself, actually, when he was younger. 

Actually Klaus was more like John Hart, but with better dress sense. Maybe a tad less reckless. 

Five looks up at Myfwany. "She's beautiful."

"She likes dark chocolate. Her name is Myfwany. Best guard dog you can have in Cardiff."

"And she came through the rift, just like we did?"

"She did." 

"Interesting." He looks up at the pterodactyl for a while. "I can get down, you know."

"I guess you can." Jack finds his way back down the ladders.


End file.
